Beads of innocence
by xxtheoneyoudreamaboutxx
Summary: ever noticed that, along with the watch and balck sexme bands, dean wears that black beaded bracelet? this is the tale os how he got it, and why he always wears it.for MzPredicable. T for nonexplicit sexual references, and occasional swearing.
1. Chapter 1

Beads of innocence

Have you ever noticed that along with his watch, and black sex-me bands, Dean wears that black beaded bracelet? This is the story of where it came from, and why he never takes it off.

**STEPHANIE'S POV**

I was 17 the night my life changed. The night I realised that the things I dream about are real. It all started when my friends decided it would "fun" (would you like me to roll my eyes for you?) to go explore the old mine shafts, a couple of miles out of town. It had closed almost 15 years before then, and since it had, our town had gone from a big mining town, to side-of-the-road-toilet-stop-ville.

Anyway, I thought it was a stupid idea, but Tory, Gary and Ben had somehow talked me into it. I won't lie, the whole idea scared me. It wasn't that I was afraid of the dark, in fact, I can't sleep with the light on. It's just that it freaks me out when I don't know the things around me, and I can't see them well enough to be sure of what is or isn't there. It just makes me feel so alone, so venerable. And that night, I learned that I was right to be afraid.

Tory, my best mate, Gary, her boyfriend, and Ben, _his_ friend, had dragged me out on a night that was supposed to be an "Annie and Tory" night. That is, a night that is just me, my best mate, girl talk, and some movies with good eye-candy. But, yet again, plans had been changed to include Gary, and worse yet his sleazy mate Ben, and so I was damned pissed off.

So there we were, exploring the old maze of the mine, at around 11 on a Friday night. Gary and Tory had recently disappeared together (and I totally did NOT want to know what they were doing) so it was just Ben and me. Ben with his, more then half empty, bottle of tequila. Me with my caffeine-saturated soda in a plastic bag hanging of my arm, and my family-sized paper-bag of hot chips in my hand. My mates hadn't let me stay at Kady's (the diner) so I had, in a way, brought it with me.

Anyway, it was around then that I started to get _really_ freaked. It wasn't just because of where we were, or because I was blind to everything outside the small radius of our flash-light beams, mine dancing crazily as I tried to eat and shine at the same time. It probably had a whole lot to do with the way Ben was smiling at me, the fact that we were alone, he was drunk, and that he had tried to get me into bed before. I'd say it was also because it was then that his hand decided it would be fun to start feeling my ass. I shoved him hard.

'Don't Ben, pl-' but he didn't let me finish. Pushing me hard up against the wall, and using his body to pin me there, his hand started to explore the inner-side of my panties, and his tongue forced it's way into my mouth. I bit down hard. Jerk.

'Ahhhhh!' Ben yelped, as I kneed him where it hurt most, and pushed away from him, and the wall, and picked up my torch, that I'd dropped.

'Thunkin-' he started to _try_ to swear at me, but stopped suddenly, eyes going wide.

'Shove it, ass-hole,' I told him, but he just stared.

'St-St- ' He stuttered, unconciously dropping his precious bottle of tequila. But the bottle never touched the ground. It shattered mid-air, the shards flying at him. Ben yelped, and stumbled the otherway, back where we had come. I heard some funky croaky noise behind me, and I hesitantly turned around. There was a man there, but I didn't give my self time to focus on him properly. I screamed, and ran, easily over taking Ben. Suddenly the man appeared in my front of me, moaning something that sounded like my name. I screamed again, and threw my paper-bag of salt-soaked chips in his face, and he evaporated the moment it touched him. I ran.

**DEAN"S POV**

I fiddled with the black beads on my wrist, as I let my mind slip away from the motel room I shared with my brother, Sammy. Slip back, to when my life had really started to change. 15yearold Sammy had talked Dad into letting him go to some nerd-ist camp, witch Dad had only let him go on, because his parents-in-law had called and said that they had already paid for it. It also wouldn't hurt for Sammy-boy to learn how to mess around with passwords and other nerdy computer stuff. Me, I didn't do the whole camp thing, but that doesn't mean I didn't do anything new that summer. Dad had found an easy hunt through a friend, that wasn't all that far from the nerd-ist colony. But it wasn't for dad to do… dad wanted to keep an eye on Sammy, so he had given the hunt to me. I was like OMG, dude, and though I was going to be supervised, it would be from a distance, the same as Sam.

So that's how I ended up in Kady's, a small town diner, that Thursday afternoon. It was one of those diners, that sat next to a highway as it cut through a town, that advertised the whole stop-revive-survive-feed-the-kids-and-survive thing. There had only been two witnesses to the SOB I was hunting, and one of them hung out here.

I looked around as I walked into the blue, 70's style diner. There was only a family with young kids, and a grandparently couple, none of which fit the profile, near the front. As I wandered past empty tables, I noticed a girl, around my age, comfortable in one of the booths near the back of the restaurant. In her well-loved jeans and Nirvana shirt, laid back, eating a family-sized plate of hot chips, overloaded with salt and sauce, she looked, to me, to be one of the hottest girls I had ever seen.

**STEPHANIE"S POV**

I felt close to tears, that Thursday afternoon in the diner. After the incident in the mines, the Friday before, I'd had a fight with Tory, and she, nor anyone else my age in this hole, had talked to me since. School had ended on the Wednesday so at least, even if I was loner, I wouldn't have to see her.

So anyway, I was sitting, alone, in the diner when he had walked over to me. I'd been half-lying-down, listening to my walk-man, and eating my usual, when he sat down, opposite me in the booth. He said something I couldn't hear over my music, so I pulled my earphones out, as I sat up, and raised my eyebrow.

'Hey?' He grinned at me, he was actually kinda cute… well more then kinda.

'Hey, can I have a chip?'

'How do you know I haven't poisoned them?'

'Because your eating them yourself. Annyyway, I'm Dean,' He told me, and though I told myself I was hoping he'd leave, I was secretly glad for the human interaction.

'Stephanie,' I half-smiled,

'But poeps tend to call me Annie, or watever. Are you passing through our little town?'

'Actually I'm staying at the motel for a couple of weeks, with my dad. My little brothers at that nerdist camp not so many miles away, so we thought we'd stay here.' I grinned.

'Nerdist…? nerd-boy plus nerd-girl equals nerd-love,' I told him, and he laughed. We talked, as shared the chips till we ran out, and he bought the second round. We kept talking, and it was pretty kool, till I heard a familiar, and completely unwanted chorus of voices walk through the door. Tory, Gary and the middle-of-no-where plastic royalty crew. Oh crap. I pulled him down, so that they wouldn't see us. And out of a complete lack of anything else to keep him there, I kissed him.

**DEAN'S POV**

We shared her hot chips, as we talked, and I shouted the next round when we ran out. It was just about school, and music and stuff, not really personal or supernatural. But I was getting to it, in fact I was trying to figure out how to bring it up, when a group of kids our age rocked up to the diner. I could hear them laughing, and mucking around but I was paying more attention to the worried look that was eched on Stephanie's face. She suddenly pulled me down, pulling me into a kiss. Man, she was a hot kisser, despite my shock of the suddenness of it. When Stephanie surfaced for air, I realised the group had gone.

'Sorry,' She said, with her eyes, not just her mouth.

'I didn't want _them_ to see me- us- uh, yeah,' she tried to explain.

'You don't have to make up excuses to kiss me,' I tried to lighten her mood.

'So why didn't you want them to see us- you-?' I asked, and she suddenly looked like she was gonna cry. I jumped up and sat next to her, putting my arm around her.

'What's wrong? Who's ass do you need me to kick?'

'That group of plastic sub-humans happened to include my ex-best-friend. We had a fight last Friday. It's stupid.'

'No, it's not,' I told her.

'My dad, my brother, and me travel around a lot, so I'm also getting dumped in different schools. So I know what it's like to lose friends, or to be the loner at school…it does make braking up easy tho…What happened?'

'Last Friday it was supposed to be just me and Tory, my best mate, but it wasn't. She dragged my ass to the old mines, just out of town, to hang with her boyfriend and his mate. Stuff happened. We yelled. Now she's plastic, and she wont talk to me,' Just then my cell rang, and I pulled it out of my pocket. Looking back, I wonder how that brick ever fit in my pocket… Anyway, Dad called.

'Kenny's pizza plaza, how may I help you?' I asked.

'I'd like a Dean, extra cheese, and a bottle of soda, at the motel in five minutes,' Dad replied. Crap. It turned to Stephanie.

'Look I gotta go back to the motel, what's your number?' she recited it as I pressed it into my cell.

'Meet me here tomorrow?'


	2. Chapter 2

**STEPHANIE"S POV**

After Dean left, I aimlessly wandered in the vage direction of the house I was living in at that point in time. I had to admit it. Dean was hot. He seemed nice enough too. But, I thought, friendship was too much to hope for, let alone… well, anything more than that.

After wandering around for a while, I ended up sitting on the stone bench in the back garden. It was eerily beatiful in the moonlight. It amazed me how my grandmother could be so out of it, so far gone that she nolonger recognised me, but still keep this garden so perfect.

It was about then that my cell went off.

'Hello?'

'Hay,' Said a male voice. 'It's Dean. Just wondering where and when we should meet tomorrow.'

'Umm,' I thought for a second. 'How about Carmel Springs Farm? Go down the main street, past Kadys, Go down the 5th right, and its about just past the first bend in the road.'

'Sounds good. What time?'

'Is 7am too early?'

'Nuh, it's good. Sleep Well.'

**DEAN"S POV**

The next morning I followed the instructions Stephanie had given me. Down the main street, past Kadys, turn on the 5th right, and Carmel Springs Farm would just past the first bend. Although I was 15minutes early, she was already there. And she wasn't the only one.

'At least, Kelly, _I'm_ not a superficial slut!' Stephanie biter voice was almost yelling, just around a bend in the road.

'Your just jealous-' put in a different girls voice, but it was cut off.

'Shut it a second, Kelly.' There was a pause. 'Annie, why did you that to Ben? He didn't do anything to you!'

'Tory, you don't know what your talking about! You weren't there- you never are! You were supposed to be my _friend_. Best friends forever- well I guess forever ended when you started dating Gary.'

'Jealous much? Just cause I'm popular and I've got a boyfriend? Bastard! Don't worry, I'd be jealous too if I wore your shoes.' Tory's voice was dripping with mockery.

'Tory, your wrong,' Kelly corrected. 'she's not a bastard, she's a poor little orphan. No friends, no money, family all dead except for a decrepit old granny who doesn't even recognise her.'

Tory scoffed. 'No wonder your jealous!' Suddenly there was a shriek of pain.

'OH MY GAWWWWWD!!! TORY! Annie why the hell did you hit her?' Kelly started to shriek, but Tory stopped her.

'Kelly, lets just go!' Seconds later, the two girls came around the corner, one with bloody nose. The moment they say me, tears sprung into their eyes, and they tried to flirt, using the whole pity vibe.

'I'm sorry. I don't do superficial sluts. I prefer poor little orphans.' I told them. 'Bye Barbie!' I walked off, leaving the two girls looking as if they had been slapped.

The moment I came around the corner, I could see Stephanie sitting on a brick fence, tears streaming down her face. I ran to sit down next to her, putting my arm around her shoulders.

'Are you okay?'

STEPHANIE'S POV

'Are you okay?' Dean suddenly appeared beside me, his arm around my shoulder.

'I'm fine.' I started, but he stopped me.

'No you're not. Please, tell me what's wrong.' I lent into him.

'I lost my best friend to the disasterous infection: Popularity.' I admitted. 'I have no one, now.'

'You have me,' He told me. 'And if it's any consolation, my mum's dead too. She died when my brother was 6mths old.' I looked up at him, startled.

'Really? Mine died when _I_ was 6mnths old- in a fire.'

'Honestly?' Asked Dean, surprised. 'Freaky.' He dried my face with his sleave.

'So what was the fight about?' I breathed in, unsure of how to start to answer the question.

'It was a continuation of last Friday's fight. See, I was really pissed off, cause it was supposed to be just me and Tory, my ex-best friend.'

'The slut whose nose you just broke?'

'Uh, yeah. But I don't know if I actually broke it.'

'Dude, I hope so,' Dean grinned. 'Aannyy way, please continue.'

'Well she invited her boyfriend, and he invited this guy Ben. They convinced me to go down into the old mines. Tory knew I hated them, but she talked me into it. While we were down there, it ended up being just me and Ben. He was drunk- he - ' I half chocked on my words. 'Stuff happened. And they all blamed it on me. But it wasn't- I didn't- well, he deserved it.'

'What happed?' Asked Dean.

'He- he-' I gulped. 'He tried to- he forced himself onto me- pushed me against the wal…he tried to-you know…'

'DIRTY SON OF A BITCH!' declared Dean. 'Uhh sorry…'

'I kneed him where it hurts most, and pushed away from him.'

'Atta girl,' Dean put in, and I smiled weakly, dispite it all, and hugged him. I told him the rest, about the ghost, or whatever it was, and how Ben had stacked it into a hole, and I'd left him there- but then could you blame me? Well obviously Tory could.

'Where's Ben now?'

'In hospital.'

I was sitting in his lap, by that point, cuddling into him. He turned me around, so that I was straddling him. 'Dean-' He put a finger to my lips.

'Stephanie,' He began.

'Don't ever let them get you down. They know jack all, and not wanting to know you is their loss. Your beautiful, your sexy, you kick ass and don't ever let them tell you otherwise. And if you swap Nirvana for ACDC you'ld have awesome taste too.' That's when he kissed me.


	3. Chapter 3

DEAN'S POV

Stephanie kept her arms around my neck, after we surfaced for air, and I put my hands on her hips, to help her balance.

'Are ACDC good? I've never listened to them,' she asked, and I smiled.

'Dam straight- they're awesome.'

'I wanna hear them.'

'I think you'll like them,' I told her. 'I'll have to show you sometime.' She kissed me quickly, then smiled.

'I'd love that.' She said, snuggling into my chest.

'I'd love you to love that' I smiled.

My stomach chose that moment to grumble, and Annie giggled.

"I'm hungry too, join me for lunch?"

"Sure," I smiled, loving the suggestion. Stephanie hopped up, and grabbed my arm, pulling me up off the wall. I grabbed her, and pulled her close and kissed her again before we walked towards Kady's, hand in hand.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

After a long and satisfying lunch, I walked up to the local hospital, and bluffed my way in to see Ben.

"Hey, man." I said, walking into the room, in which he was lying. One of his arms were broken, and he was bruised and battered. Even though Dean didn't know this, Ben was only still here because his mother was a nurse, and Ben, who had a lust for more than one of the younger nurses, was milking it to the best of his ability.

"Hey, do I know you?" He asked.

"Dude, we were in primary school together. You don't remember me?" (Dean had learnt from Annie that Ben had moved here a couple of years ago, and had previously lived in Boston.)

"Nahh, sorry, man. What was your name?"

" Dean, Dean Winchester. I'm passing through here with my Dad, thought I'd see how you were, see if you knew any single girls and hang out, but doesn't seem like you're doing too well, mate."

"Yeah, see..." Ben told his macho, over-the-top story, and Dean laughed and listened along. Afterwards, Dean stood up.

"If your still here when I break out, I'll introduce you to the ladies," Ben offered.

"Thanks mate," Dean leant intimidating over Ben, "You know, I lied.

You know that girl, Stephanie, whom you were referring to as a little slut, she's my girlfriend. Just don't think I wouldn't break your other arm, or that nose of yours." Dean flicked the guys bruising, causing Ben to gasp in pain.

Dean grinned as he walked out. He would have liked to have killed the guy with his bare hands, but for now, the having made the kid wet himself, and lie there for a good while in it (Dean had disabled his call button) would be enough.


	4. Chapter 4

STEPHANIE'S POV

That night, or rather the next morning, I was woken at 4am by the smell of smoke and burning plastic. I shot out of bed, and paused for the less then a second to grab a couple of items of my dresser and throw them into my bag, which I threw onto my back, and grab my handbag. I ran out of the room, past the kitchen, already engulfed in flames, and towards my grandmother's room.

A while later, the fire was put out, and my grandmother had been taken off in an ambulance, unconscious. I had been given checked out by more ambulance staff already, and been told I'd be fine.

At this point, I was sitting on the lawn, watching the sunrise, when a young officer sat down next to her.

"How are you feeling?" I turned and looked at him.

"Alright considering, I just hope my grandmother will be okay."

"Thanks to you, she may well be. Could you explain to me what happened?" He asked, kindly. I explained about waking up, grabbing my phone and bag, and running to my grandmother's room to find it empty. I told him how I had found my grandmother in the lounge, how she had passed out, and how I had thrown my bag out the glass sliding door, and carried my grandmother out.

"I didn't notice she was burnt, at first, I don't think she had even noticed, and my mind was so focused on getting her out."

"It'd okay" He said, kindly.

"Shit" I swore, suddenly, realisation hitting me. "It didn't occur to me before, but where is Nina?"

"Nina?" he asked.

"Nina Baker, my grandmother's carer. She lives here with my grandmother all week, and another lady takes over on the weekends. It's been like this for the last couple of years, since her mind has started to go. She is fine sometimes, others, she thinks she is back in the past, and acts all weird. Nina was here earlier, when I went to check on my grandmother, it would have been almost 9pm. I went for a walk then to bed, and didn't see either again until I got woken up by the fire. She wasn't with my grandmother, or in her or my grandmother's bedrooms," I told him. He paused to process what I had said.

"We'll look into it for you. It's possible she was in another part of the house, but we won't know until we clear it out. We'll let you know."

He asked me some more questions, about what had happened, before asking me about myself. I told him the truth that I was 17, and would be 18 in two months. I told him the truth about my dad moving us to his mother's, after my mum died when I was a baby, and how he had died when I was 5, leaving me with my grandmother. I told him the truth about having lived with her for the next 11 years, until her mind had started to go.

He asked why I hadn't been put into foster care, after my grandmother had started loosing it, and couldn't take care of me anymore. I bullshitted about an uncle whom I had stayed with, and said that he was away on business for a couple of days, and that I stayed at my grandmothers some nights to visit.

The truth was I now owned a couple of houses myself, that were under my "uncles" name, until I turned 18. My grandmother had helped me keep them together, some of them, including the one my mother had died in, were rented out, which paid a lot of the bills. One of them, I lived in myself, part time, which is where I said I lived with my uncle. I knew what I was doing too, my non-existent uncle was in the police system, and owned a condo in the next big city, and a car. I also knew they would want to talk to my "uncle" after what had happened. It was one thing hacking computers, setting up accounts, and buying things in someone else's name, and quite another to provide the police with someone that doesn't exist.

I told the officer that I had a friend staying at the motel, and he dropped me off there, after telling me that he would call me later to come down to the station, after they had gone through the house, and so they could ask a few more questions.

I knew which room Dean was staying in, and knocked on the door.

DEAN'S POV

I woke up to the sound of knocking on the door. It would have been around 6am, no later. I opend the door with the chain still on, to see Stephanie in tears. Dropping the knife into the dresser so I wouldn't scare her, I pulled the chain off and let her in. I hugged her and pulled her into the room, locking the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" She looked at me, as if wondering where to start.

"I just want breakfast." She said, obviously avoiding the question. I hadn't had much experience with women yet, but I thought better then to push it.

"let me get dressed, and I'll see about food, okay?" I said, still hugging her, and greatly aware I was only wearing my boxer shorts. I pulled away and grabbed clothes before disappearing into the bathroom to put them on.


	5. Chapter 5

STEPHANIE'S POV

After Dean got dressed, we walked to the supermarket to buy food supplies, before I showed him my house.

It was called "Carmel Springs Farm" for unknown reasons to me, but I didn't mind the name enough to change it. It was a small farmhouse, and I liked it. The farm it had originally stood on had been divided up and sold, or leased, as smaller farms before I had been born.

I showed Dean inside, and put the groceries down on the bench, before lighting the gas stove. The moment it ignited, I collapsed, with the weight of the memories it sparked inside my head.

Dean grabbed me, and sat on the floor with me, as I cried, and told him what had happened.

He told me that it was okay, as he dried my eyes, and I looked up at him and suddenly was aware of how close we were and how gorges he looked. I kissed him, and things just progressed from there. We were both 17year old outsiders, with almost no knowledge of contraception, foreplay, and how adult relationships work out in the world. It was stupid, spontaneous and beautiful, and I have never regretted it.


	6. Chapter 6

DEAN'S POV

I know Sam would pay me out if he found out how I lost it. He probably assumes it was with some hot older blonde, and her sister, when I was 16 or something. Despite being who I am now, I have been in love two, or three times, and this was the first. I promised myself it would be the last, but cupid is an awful son of a bitch, and if the lore about him is real, then I would love to shoot his own arrow up his arse.

Anyway, that was the night I lost it. Dad had taught me about killing monsters, taught me how to hustle pool, but he hadn't told me about sex. Of course, I knew that his went into hers, and that it was supposed to have something to do with love and the production of babies, but I was more than hazy on the details.

Xxx

That night, I convinced Stephanie to stay in the motel room with me. I was worried about her safety, especially now that her grandmother's house had burnt down, and the fact that the carer had done a disappearing act.

While she slept in my bed, I sat up all night on the couch, with a rock salt-loaded shotgun in my hand.

Dad stayed watching Sammy that night.


	7. Chapter 7

STEPHANIE'S POV

I never regretted giving myself to Dean. Of course, it was hard when he had to leave, even if I always knew he would. We might not have the most conventional relationship, these days, but you have to make the best of what you have. And I love knowing that Dean is helping people, saving them, even when I'm scared this will be the time he doesn't come back, and wishing he was here with us.

Anyway, he was stubborn about me staying with him that night, in his motel room. The whole thing was surreal to me; it was hard to believe it was happening. Not because of the fact that ghosts and monsters were real, that just made sense. It was having someone care about me, be so protective of me. It was the greatest feeling.

Xxx

Dean and I spent the next couple of days enjoying each other's company and researching about the ghost. We went down the mine shaft, to where it happened, but it was during the day, so besides the Ben's broken bottle of tequila, we didn't see anything.

I still worked some nights at Kady's, and Dean signed up too, cooking and mopping floors while I served.

It was a two days later, when I got a phone call.

"Dean?" I said, after I hung up.

"I have a problem."

DEAN'S POV

"I have a problem." Stephanie said.

"What kind of problem?" I asked, worried.

"That was the police, they want me to go down to the station, with my uncle, for a few more questions, and because they have news."

"Yeah?"

"I don't have an uncle," She admitted, sheepishly.

"Oh, he is on official records, has a passport and a birth certificate, a car and a flat in the city, but he isn't real. I invented the whole thing a few years back so that I could stay here, with my grandmother. I didn't like the idea of living in an orphanage or something somewhere, when I'm capable of taking care of myself, and I didn't want to leave my grandma."

"I'm impressed." I told her, honestly. "But your plan becomes flawed now that the police want a chat with him. When do they want to see him?"

"I told them that he wasn't meant until Sunday night, and that I had tried to call him but hadn't been able to get onto him."

"I'll see if I can get someone to play your uncle for you, okay? I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind, though he will tan my ass for not telling him about the hunt sooner."


	8. Chapter 8

DEANS POV

Two days later, Saturday, after dinner, we went down the mine again. I remember wishing that I had a third arm, so that I could hold the salt, the flashlight and have my arm around her. But, alas, Sammy is the freak, not me.

"What are we gonna do about my uncle?" Stephanie was asking,

"Is your Dad okay with it? I wish I didn't have to ask you to bring him into this… I don't want you to get into shit." I let out a sigh of sorts, wondering if I should admit to being too scared of Dad's wrath to ask him before answering.

"I called my friend Bobby. Dad will probably be too busy with Sam and with his own hunt anyway." I had explained it to him, and we had agreed to tell Dad, if he found Bobby here, that I had needed man advice but was too embarrassed to tell Dad. Dude, worked for me.

"Afraid of shit? It's okay. Being afraid is what got me into this situation in the first place." She smiled, reassuringly.

"It's crazy, I mean, I'm not afraid of these things you hunt, well… yeah, what we are doing, down here, it's scary, it's dangerous but… I can deal with all of this, all of the crazy 'ghosts and ghouls are real' stuff and I can deal with the possibility of getting hurt or killed doing stuff like this a lot better than I can deal with the possibility of an senile, old lady who doesn't even remember who I am, and will be on her deathbed in a few years if she survives this." I put my torch wielding arm over her shoulder, and kissed her temple.

"Being afraid to be alone isn't crazy. If I hadn't turned up, then when she dies you would have no one but an imaginary uncle. I mean, I'm afraid of something happening to my dad, but I'd still have my baby brother, so I wouldn't be alone. You're a tough kid, and I love you." What? I'm not a fucking pussy, and I only do chick flick moments with… well my lover. I can be a gentleman and an upstanding guy when I want to be, hell I raised Sammy without too much help from our Dad. So shut you're pie hole.

I felt her stiffen, slightly, before she looked up at me and whispered,

"I love you, too, Dean." Stephanie pulled away, so that she could turn and face me. Putting a small, delicate hand on my face, she kissed me.

"So, where here. At the mine. So, what do we do now?"

Stephanie's POV

"So, we're here. At the mine. What are we supposed to do now?" I grinned. I liked the idea of being a hunter, like Dean. It was exciting, challenging and most of all you helped people, saved them. Also, it's not as if I had anything against identity fraud for the greater good.

"We see if we can find the sucker, and then we make it up from there." Dean grinned back. Even as an angsty teenager, not that Dean was ever angsty like that, he had an amazing smile. Anyway, we wandered into the mine shaft, and into the darkness. It was dustly and monotonous, besides a few scraps of rubbish here and there. So we walked, in silence, for awhile. I'll save you the painful details of each step we took, and each piece of dirt on the ground, and skip to where things, well, got interesting.

It wasn't until we were passed the discarded chip packet and the glass shards that we saw anything. It started off as a wispy, dull shadow of a nondescript miner, flickering slightly. It…he started to reach out for me, again, as I took a step backwards, and away from him.

"Sssstt…" He whispered, as if trying to say something through a gag. It was then that he started to grow clearer.

"Sssste—fffnnnneee…" I looked up at the apparition that was reaching out to me, almost begging me to understand. It looked so desperate. And then, I understood.

"D-Dad?"


	9. Chapter 9

STEPHANIE'S POV

The ghost gestured to the wall besides me, pointing madly, as he groaned my name. Dean nodded, and walked over, pressing against the rock face. There was a small lunch tin, tucked away inside a crevice. He pulled it out, passing it to me.

"Prrrttteccctt…" He tried to get out, nodding at Dean. I dare say, this wasn't what Dean expected his first 'meet the parents' to be like.

"Protect her? You have my word, sir." The ghost nodded at Dean's response. He walked towards me, putting a hand on my face before a light shone through him, and he disintegrated.

"He's moved on." Dean explained, putting an arm around me.

"He's in a better place now." He stopped and looked down.

"What is that?"

I dusted the surface of the metal, my fingers brushing the engraving of my father's name. I opened it, as Dean held the flashlight, to reveal an antique flask, a locket and a few pages underneath. He latched the necklace around my neck, before I pulled a few pages out.

There was a couple of photographs; my mother smiling and holding a baby, me, and a picture of me taking my first steps. Dean caught the tear as it rolled down my cheek, whispering,

"It's okay."


	10. Epilogue

**PRESENT TIME**-- (it's the middle of the night, in a motel somewhere)

Sam rolled over and opened his eyes after Dean's cell had rung a few times.

"Dean?" He asked, but his brother remained in dream land, somewhere. He groaned, as he fumbled for the phone.

"Dean's phone. This is Sam." His voice was thick with sleep.

"Sam?" A young female voice spilled out of the phone, filled with worry and surprise.

"Uncle Sammy? Where is Daddy?"

* * *

A/N—This is the end. But never fear, there is a sequel coming! ^_^


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